Pakistan is an agricultural state thus
agriculture gains are of much importance than any other sector. Though all
economies rely on three sectors agriculture, manufacturing and service and
growth in each augment growth in others as well. Importance of this sector is
manifold as it feeds people, provides raw material for industry and is a base
for foreign trade. Foreign exchange earned from merchandise exports is
approximately 45% of total exports of Pakistan. It contributes 21% of GDP and
52% of the total populace is getting its livelihood from agriculture. Food
insecurity exists in the absence of food security. The chronic hunger kills more
people every day than disasters, diseases or war.

The concern of food security is
accentuated at individual, household, national, regional and global level when
people do not get physical and economic access to sufficient food to meet their
dietary needs for a healthy life. At national level, government's efforts to
reduce poverty are expected to enable individuals get adequate nutritional food.
Globally, nearly one billion people - one out of six globally - lack access to
adequate food and nutrition. By 2050, the global population is expected to go
beyond 9 billion, and demand for agricultural products is expected to double. At
the same time, the world's agricultural systems will be increasingly challenged
by water scarcity, climate change and volatility, raising the risk of production
shortfalls. Substantial gains in agricultural productivity can be realized
through investment, innovation, multipronged policy and other improvements.
However, realizing these gains will require an exceptional level of
collaboration among stakeholders in the agricultural value chain, including
governments, corporations, civil-society organizations, farmers, consumers and
entrepreneurs. Stakeholder alignment around shared priorities and large-scale
initiatives can therefore be key to success in providing food security.

In Pakistan, food insecurity has become
crucial and adversely damaging to economy and national security due to its
special circumstances. Pakistan's population has grown at much faster rate in
last three decades and is expected to grow to 234 million by 2025 and further
reach upto 357 million by 2050. Whereas, the situation is alarming as per capita
availability of land and water has been declining rapidly. We need to possess
the potential and availability of growing demand of food. At first physical
availability of food and then economic accessibility to it for the people is
required.

Planning and policies as we witnessed
in the past that first we export, and then we import 'Pakistani wheat' at much
higher rates during the time of crises from the neighboring countries. There
have been serious irregularities in the past in wheat export and then import.
The traders mafia (that includes ministers, influential parliamentarians and the
private traders plus few industrialists) in our country is very strong and the
common consumer suffers the net impact of such malpractices. Government takes
decisions in the name of consumers but in actual effect these are the traders
who benefit from exports/ imports and not the consumers. The profiteering
tendency of the global food producers and distributors even at the cost of
people's survival is bound to create social and political upheavals. This is a
harsh reality which the business people and policy makers have chosen to ignore
so far.

Food sovereignty is the right of people
to define their own food and agriculture, and to protect and regulate domestic
agricultural production and trade. This is not available to even smallest
percentage of labour force associated with agriculture. Pakistan's largest
labour force is associated with agriculture but its contribution to GDP is on
continuous decline year after year. Agriculture production used to contribute
42% in 1970-1980, which is now down to 21%. Some of the reasons are mentioned
above and most significant is the dishonest planner causing exploitation of
rural poor due to lack of education, technological unawareness, ownership of
small farms, less effective farming techniques and economic vulnerability.

In Pakistan we can find countless
number of stories coming from the every nook and corner of the country, trying
to shed light on the miseries caused by the food shortages and the price hike.
These stories are indicating poor planning and fake intention of decision
makers. There are reports on food shortages and also claims by the government on
food availability. There are reports on mill-owners and farmers associations
asking government to increase the crop support price. There is story of farmers
burning their own crops of sugarcane because of very low support price. There
are reports on smuggling and hoarding of wheat. There are reports on how state
run 'utility-stores' are creating hurdles for common citizens to utilize relief
schemes introduced by the government. There are also reports on the steps taken
by the government to curb food crisis - bids to foil cross-border smuggling,
price subsidies, importing wheat etc. All these reports are pointing towards one
fact that from the last few years Pakistani is suffering as the prices of edible
food items including wheat, rice, meat, pulses, vegetables are all skyrocketing
and out of reach of the poorest segments of the society. Natural calamities and
mismanagement of land and water has also contributed in lowering agriculture
output.

Realizing the situation of current food
insecurity that may augment in the years to come, emergency measures are
required to be taken for agriculture food security. These include; water
management by building dams and irrigation systems, provision of agriculture
credit to farmers, availability of seeds, pesticides and fertilizers at
subsidized rates, utilization of wastelands, efficient utilization of
under-utilized lands, development of problematic lands, rainwater harvesting and
conservation for the development of rain fed areas, development of irrigation,
diversification to high value crops, increasing cropping intensity, timely and
adequate availability of all farming inputs, strengthening of marketing,
developing agriculture infrastructure (including warehouses), encouraging
private sector to take up extension services, reforms to introduce proactive
policies for the farm sector and traing of farmers to adopt modern techniques of
farming.

Food has been declared as a basic human
right by UN. There is lots of empirical evidence available to prove that
scarcity of food can be a potential source of conflicts and incidence of
socio-economic and political instability. Food crisis might lead to law and
order situation if not controlled in time. Frustration of a common citizen is
visible from the number of protests reported in the media and the security
hassles which are resulting due to it. In the scenario of global food shortage
forecasts by experts, Pakistan need to take this issue seriously to become at
least self-sustain in the availability of food for its people.